Gurgaon weighs heavy on Left’s meeting with PM

After the meeting, CPI leader AB Bardhan said that the Left parties told the Prime Minister that ‘‘the differences on both the Indo-US joint statement and the interview given to the US daily would remain’’. Asked if the Left would keep up with that opposition while participating in a discussion on the Prime Minister’s tour to the US, Bardhan replied in the affirmative.

But this was overtaken by the Left’s concern over the Gurgaon ‘‘police atrocities’’.

Left leaders said it was CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat who raised the issue at the meeting.

Bardhan said the Left claimed that the incident had snowballed into a nationwide issue and should be ‘‘settled immediately’’. The Left pointed out that since there was a Congress government in Haryana, the UPA leadership should ensure that Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda acts without delay.

The CPI was vocal as its trade union wing,, the AITUC, is directly involved in the protest in Gurgaon. It demanded adequate compensation and health care for the injured.

The party criticised the delay in shifting patients to hospitals in Delhi when medical facilities in Gurgaon and neighbouring Sohna were far from adequate. It was pointed out to the Prime Minister that several people were missing and the police should account for them.

The Left, especially Bardhan and his party colleague, D.Raja pointed out that action should be taken against guilty policemen. ‘‘The pictures that have gone out through news television channels are gruesome and barbaric and show how vengeful the law enforcing authorities can be,’’ said Bardhan.

The parties also demanded that the Honda management take back employees who have been sacked. “Illegal lock-outs will not be tolerated,’’ Bardhan said. He also said the Gurgaon violence showed the direction in which liberalisation was taking society.